Jackson's resolution encourages more female company directors

The state Senate on Monday approved a resolution by Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara, to encourage publicly held companies to increase the number of women on their boards of directors.

If adopted by the Assembly, the resolution would encourage public corporations with at least nine directors to include at least three women by December 2016.

The resolution also suggests boards with five to eight directors should have at least two women and boards with fewer than five members should have at least one woman.

“The corporate boardroom is one of the last arenas where women do not have equality,” said Jackson, vice chairwoman of the California Legislative Women’s Caucus. “This is the beginning of a conversation here in California that I want to continue until these corporate boards can no longer afford to be an old boys network.”

Jackson added: “A resolution is a symbolic show of support of a concept. It does not have the force of law behind it.”

Women represent about 10 percent of the directors and highest-paid executives of California’s 400 largest publicly held companies, according to a study by the UC Davis Graduate School of Management. Nearly 45 percent of the surveyed companies have all male boards of directors, the December 2012 report found.

After eight years of conducting the study, the report “continues to paint a dismal picture,” said Steven Currall, dean of the business school. “Every year we see the same figures and very little improvement.”

Women represented 6.3 percent of directors and 2.9 percent of highest-paid executives of seven Ventura County companies included in the report: PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust in Moorpark, Amgen Inc. and Teledyne Technologies Inc. in Thousand Oaks, Calavo Growers Inc. and Limoneira Co. in Santa Paula, and Power-One Inc. and Semtech Corp in Camarillo.

Amanda Kimball, research specialist and author of the UC Davis report, said there are clear connections between companies with women in top leadership positions and companies that are innovative and financially successful.

“The research speaks for itself,” Kimball said.

Betsy Berkhemer-Credaire, California board member of the National Association of Women Business Owners, said there are 1.3 million female business owners throughout the state and that many are qualified to serve on corporate boards.

“The pipeline of qualified women is absolutely bursting,” Berkhemer-Credaire said. “The roadblock is the lack of open seats, therefore the lack of demand.”

Berkhemer-Credaire said the resolution will “help move the needle” and encourage companies to add more seats to boards to include additional women if there are no upcoming retirements.

The Senate approved the resolution on a 30-6 vote Monday, federally recognized as Women’s Equality Day. Aug. 26 marks the anniversary of the 1920 ratification of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.

“We’ve got to get over the days where women have to be twice as good to get half as far,” Jackson said.